Plant Description – Content Creation

Plant Description – Content Creation

v.2.0.1-20211207

Writing Guide: https://article.picturethisai.com/writing-guide/

What's this content for?

This writing task is to draw the first impression of a specific plant to the audience. Try to narrow the distance between unfamiliar plants and people, reducing alienation.

This section is the first section directly talking about the characters of the plant, so it is a “first impression” section. Interesting is in the first place, making an impressive and unique impression of the target plant is the key.

Daily usage or industrial value is encouraged, which is easy to echo the audiences’ memory of this plant. Reduce botanical description and measurement of the plants unless it is characteristic.

Requirement
  1. General Requirements:
  • Word Count: Each description should consist of around 30-60 words. (For Japanese and Korean, around 60-120 characters, for Chinese, around 50-90.)
  • Avoid Formulaic Expression: Try to change the choice of content and expression appropriately, preventing similar content with a similar structure from appearing repeatedly within one working set. Overly formulaic content (>50% content is written in the same form) will be rejected.
  • Avoid simple listing: including but not limited to geographical distribution and habitat. Try to use generalized terms, e. g., we should use “Northeast Asia” instead of “Japan, Korea, Inner Mongolia, and Russian Far East”. A simple listing of more than 3 items (countries, habitats) at one time is NOT ALLOWED.
  • Interesting Facts: Each description should consist of 2 or more “interesting facts” (Goto 2. what is an interesting fact?).
  1. What is an Interesting Fact?

2.1 These facts are  considered as interesting(Dos)

  • Historical use and cultural significance. Connection with local culture is highly recommended.
  • Garden usage and why it is used like this. (for garden plants)
  • Economic value. (for crops)
  • Culinary use. (for crops, vegetables, and spices)
  • Toxicity, invasive, and other harms. (but please DO NOT describe symptoms of poisoning or environmental hazards IN DETAIL here, they will be described in other sections)
  • Insect/bird attracting. (e. g., milkweed is the only food for monarch butterflies’ larvae)
  • For wildflowers, in which season or special ecosystem you can find them.
  • The name origin: why it is called like this.
  • The similarity to some most common plants and how to distinguish them.

 2.2 These facts are considered as NOT interesting (Not Suggested):

  • Simply mention the place of origin (only in some limited conditions it will be considered as interesting, such as when it is highly invasive and you are chasing its origin; or declare the usage in a native garden, etc.)
  • Morphological description and measurements. (unless it is very uncommon in the plant world, or directly related to its usage.)

2.3 Do not mention these pieces of information (Don’ts)

  • Scientific synonym, alternative common name. These names are listed in our system in another section, please DO NOT mention them unless there’s an interesting name story behind it.
  • Taxonomy information is neither interesting to common readers nor can it be wrong (because of the taxonomy system that has changed frequently recently), please DO NOT mention it here.
  • Widely cited “NASA Research” supporting the air-cleaning effects of plants is flawed. The air-cleaning efficiency of all the plants is later proven to be too low to be practical. Using any plant to absorb toxic chemicals in your room is not realistic, so please DO NOT mention any air-cleaning effects of plants in this section.
Special Attentions
  • Local information in your country is highly recommended
  • Use common names instead of Latin names whenever possible
  • Italicize any Latin words (other than placeholders) that appear (e.g., genus names, etc.)

  • If you believe that the common name of the writing target is wrong (including singular or plural form), please Report it in the link below and we will change it in time.

Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vO4wADpXiyJdfwnO4FWJiu0CL_1etZ4zdxapqGraE2U/edit?usp=sharing

Sample Descriptions

Tanacetum vulgare (Tansy)

  • _COMMON_NAME_ (_LATIN_NAME_) is a fragrant herb that has a scent similar to rosemary 【special character】. It was cultivated since Ancient Greece【History】, and its essential oil is still widely used today 【economical usage, while AVOIDed talking about their indications and efficacy in aromatherapy】. But take care, internally taking either _COMMON_NAME_ or its essential oil is toxic. 【toxicity】

Callistemon citrinus (Crimson bottlebrush)

  • _COMMON_NAME_ is a shrub commonly found in swamps and near rivers【When and where can you find them】. You can easily recognize this plant by its unique red flowers, shaped like a bottlebrush【special look】, hence it got the name “crimson bottlebrush”【name origin】. The flowers produce sweet nectar which is a source of food for numerous species of birds【wildlife attraction】.